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With just days before TikTok faces a potential U.S. ban, OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely has thrown his hat into the increasingly crowded ring of potential buyers.
Stokely’s new company Zoop, partnering with cryptocurrency firm Hbar Foundation, promises to flip social media’s business model by giving 80% of advertising revenue back to creators and users.
“We’ve been looking at social for a long time, given our past. We want to restructure the industry in a way that we think is equitable,” Zoop co-founder RJ Phillips told WIRED. “Creators have a hard enough time making steady income. For us it’s always going to focus on creators first, and not on shareholders first.”
ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, faces an April 5 deadline to sell to an American buyer or see the app banned in the United States. The requirement comes from a national security law passed in January.
President Donald Trump is personally reviewing offers with Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The White House has stepped into an unusual role, essentially running the auction for one of the world’s most popular apps.
“We have a lot of potential buyers,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”
Several major companies have entered bidding wars for the platform that 170 million Americans use. Amazon submitted a last-minute offer, though industry insiders don’t consider it serious. Other contenders include Oracle, Blackstone, former L.A. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, mobile tech company AppLovin, and AI startup Perplexity.
If no deal happens by the deadline, TikTok faces removal from U.S. app stores. Trump has hinted he might extend the deadline if needed.
While Stokely built OnlyFans, known largely for adult content, his new venture Zoop operates in mainstream social media. The Hbar Foundation’s American-based blockchain technology could help address the security concerns that triggered the forced sale.
One major complication: China might not allow ByteDance to sell TikTok’s algorithm. Exporting such technology would require Chinese government approval under rules created in 2020.
As negotiations reach their final days, Trump has suggested he could reduce Chinese tariffs in exchange for Beijing’s approval of a TikTok sale, showing how this tech deal has become entangled in international politics.
